Wednesday, 29 June 2011

People walk every day to get form one point to another without thinking twice about it.

But walking is vital to one’s health.

Up to 30 per cent of elderly patients who lose their ability to walk because of a fracture die from complications within a y ear, said Dr Lim Lian Arn, a orthopaedic surgeon at Raffles Hospital. The complications include chest infections, urinary tract infections and aggravated bed sores.

He said: “We usually lose our ability to walk because of an adverse health issue, which will further compound the condition we are in.”

Parts of bed-bound patients’ lungs may be congested and collect secretions, making them prone to infection, said Dr Jason Chia, a sports physician who heads the sports medicine and surgery clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Since the lower limbs are easily the part of the body that gets the most exercise, a lack of mobility can also contribute to weight gain, said Dr Tan Jee Lim, an orthopaedic surgeon at Gleneagles Medical Centre.

This, in turn, can result in obesity and a higher risk of related conditions such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

Walking keeps one healthy by facilitating the flow of air in and out of the lungs and stimulating the heart to supply blood to the large working muscles, thereby keeping the heart fit, said Ms Pauline Leong, the principal physiotherapist at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

This has also been shown to help lower blood pressure.

Though a much more leisurely activity compared to running or cycling, walking helps older people maintain muscle strength and bone density, said Dr Chia.

“Despite the low impact, walking still puts some weight on the muscles and joints and thus provides a level of stimulus from these structures prevent disuse and atrophy,” he said.

This then reduces the risk of falls and subsequent injuries, said Ms Leong

Walking benefits mental health too.

When one is walking, the body releases “feel good” chemicals called endorphins which help one feel better about himself, said Associate Professor Ng Beng Yeong, who heads the department of psychiatry at SGH.

“Many people tend to ruminate over future happenings or pat events. Walking encourages one to focus on the present, providing respite for the individual who is overwhelmed by the daily hassles of life,” he said.

Dr Tommy Tan, a psychiatrist at Novena Medical Centre, said: “We live in a society where we give time to everyone else. When we walk leisurely, we give time to ourselves to appreciate the things we often take for granted. After all, we were born to walk.”

In this way, walking serves as a form of a spiritual pursuit or meditation that strengthens one’s mental health, he said.

Prof Ng added that with an increase in stamina, body strength, physique and general well-being, a person’s self-esteem may also improve.

Walking is the easiest form of exercise to kick start one’s exercise programme to maintain fitness.

One can start walking without worrying about gym memberships, expensive equipment or pool admissions.

Dr Tommy Tan said he encourages his patients to walk because it is the cheapest and simplest form of exercise, with no special equipment needed.

“Walking can be done at any time, at the workplace, at home or anywhere”

One should do leisure or brisk walking at least five times a week, with each walking session lasting 30 minutes.

The pace should be of moderate intensity.

“In practical terms, this is fast enough to feel slight breathlessness but one is still able to converse in full sentences,” said Dr Chia.

People who are unable to set aside time for walking can break up the sessions into 10-minute bouts. However, each bout of exercise still has to be done at moderate intensity.

The elderly should walk at a moderate intensity for up to an hour daily to maintain their fitness, Ms Leong said.

“They will then realize that they are able to do more in their daily activities without being winded or tired. This will motivate them to continue and increase their activity levels,” she said.

She added: “You can get major health benefits from a relatively mild form of exercise as long as you do enough and do it regularly.”

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Everyone knows that weeds eat out the life of the garden and of the productive fields. The gardener and farmer alike each has to keep the weeding process alive. It’s like that in the building and developing of character. No one knows our own faults and tendencies better than we do ourselves, so that it is up to each one of us to keep the weeds out, and to keep all growth vigorous and fruitful. - George Matthew Adams

There is no royal road to any learning, no matter what it is. There is no royal road to any righteous living, no matter who you are or what you are. There is no royal road to anything that is worthwhile. Nothing that is deserving of earning or of cherishing comes except through hard work. - J. Reuben Clark

It is not innate in the human character to dwell deeply in the depths of any subject by inquiring into it, researching, and truly mastering all facets of the subject. Especially now, in our times, society willingly accepts mediocrity and appearances rather than the actuality of excellence. - Samuel Avital

Monday, 27 June 2011

A tailor called on James to collect a long-overdue bill. When he arrived, the tailor found James sipping a glass of champagne. “How can you drink champagne when you can’t pay your bills?” demanded the tailor.

“My good man,” James answered, “I assure you the champagne hasn’t been paid for either.”

Insurance

The barn at Larry and Susan’s farm burned down, and Susan called the insurance company.

Susan: “We had that barn insured for fifty thousand and I want my money.”

Agent: “Whoa there just a minute, Susan, it doesn’t work quite like that. We will ascertain the value of the old barn and provide you with a new one of comparable worth.”

Susan, after a pause: “I’d like to cancel the policy on my husband.”

No Racism

I never suffered from any racism being Jewish. Once, when I was a kid, another kid made a racial slur and I told my dad about it. I’ll never forget what my dad told me. He said, “Gregg, it doesn’t matter what race you are or the colour of your skin. There will always be some people out there who aren’t going to like you – ‘cause you’re irritating.”

Sunday, 26 June 2011

All goes onward and outward,
nothing collapses, and to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier. - Unknown

As a well spent day brings happy
sleep, so life well used brings happy death. - Leonardo Davinci

As sure as
death. - Giovanni Boccaccio

Avoiding
talking, or thinking about death is not going to make it go away. We all come
face to face with death at some point in our life, and the sooner we understand
death, the better. - Unknown

Better to die
once and for all, than live in continual terror. - Aesop

Cowards die many times before
their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once. - William
Shakespeare

Death also teaches us the
impermanence of all things. All things change. All things die. This is true in
nature as well as in human life. Even granite mountains crumble into dust just
as the most beautiful of past kingdoms have left only silent stones to surround
their mystery. To be attached to things or people, both of which will surely
vanish, can only bring despair, for eventually one is left with only a handful
of dust or a frail memory. - Leo Buscaglia

Death appears unlovely only to
those attached to earthly things. - Unknown

Death does not
surprise a wise man, he is always ready to leave. - Jean de la Fontaine

Death either destroys or unhusks us. If it means
liberation, better things await us when our burden’s gone: if destruction,
nothing at all awaits us; blessings and curses are abolished. - Seneca

Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.
- Eric Holfer

Death
has got something to be said for it: There’s no need to get out of bed for it; Wherever you may be,
They bring it to you, free. - Sir Kingsley William Amis

Death is a release
from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their
puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the
flesh. - Marcus Aurelius

Death is more universal than life;
everyone dies but not everyone lives. - A. Sachs

Death is neither a threat nor a
horror. Rather, it serves as life’s greatest ally. - Unknown

Death is not
extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the Dawn has
come. - Rabindranath Tagor

Death is not the greatest loss in
life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. - Norman
Cousins

Death is nothing, but to live
defeated and inglorious is to die daily. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Death is shrouded in its own
mystery. One can never know beforehand precisely how or when it will come. No
matter how prepared we are, it always seems to take us by surprise. Even
forewarned we seem unable to contend with the shock or accept it without
experiencing deep feelings of fear, superstition, anxiety and isolation. - Unknown

Death is the greatest of life’s
teachers. It is only the ignorant and those who are afraid to live who fear it.
The wise accept Death as their intimate friend and most gracious teacher. To be
fully active and fully functioning as a person we must make death a life long
friend. - Leo Buscaglia

Death is the last chapter in time, but
the first chapter in eternity. - Unknown

Death is the liberator of him whom
freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the
comforter of him whom time cannot console. - Charles Colton

Death is the moment when dying
ends. - Montaigne

Death is the only inescapable,
unavoidable, sure thing. We are sentenced to die the day we're born. - Gary
Mark Gilmore

Death is the ugly fact which
Nature has to hide, and she hides it well. - Alexander Smith

Death is the wish of some, the
relief of many, and the end of all. -Seneca

Death not merely ends life, it
also bestows upon it a silent completeness, snatched from the hazardous flux to
which all things human are subject. - Hannah Arendt

Death surprises us in the midst of our hopes. - Thomas
Fuller

Death teaches us that in the long run
nothing belongs to us. Even if we desire to form permanent attachments or
possessions, we in truth, cannot. Things will break in spite of us. People will
depart when it is their time no matter how loudly we protest. A knowledge of
death can give one a deep feeling of freedom – both from attachment to self, as
well as attachment to others and things. The less we are attached to, the less
we have to worry about. - Leo Buscaglia

Death, if we are willing to look,
constantly makes us aware of itself. It is everywhere, even at the first sign
of life. - Unknown

Death, like birth, is
a secret of Nature. - Marcus Aurelius

Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of
no concern to us; for while we exist, death is not present, and when death is
present, we no longer exist. - Epictetus

Death: A
punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor. - Seneca

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. - Marcus
Aurelius

Do not grudge
your brother his rest. He has at last become free, safe and immortal, and
ranges joyous through the boundless heavens; he has left this low-lying region
and has soared upwards to that place which receives in its happy bosom the
souls set free from the chains of matter. Your brother has not lost the light
of day, but has obtained a more enduring light. He has not left us, but has
gone on before. -Seneca

Every moment of life is a step toward the grave. - Crebillon

For a man who has done his natural
duty, death is as natural as sleep. - George Santayana

For life is near every day to death. - Phaedrus

Hardest of deaths to a mortal Is the death he sees
ahead. - Bacchylides

He who doesn’t
fear death dies only once. - Giovanni Falcone

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory,
abides with us, more potent, nay, more present, than the living man. - Saint-Exupery

How fascinating is death, the extinction
of life. One moment here and the next gone. The light put out and only the
empty bag of the body left. - Henry van Dyke

I postpone death by living, by
suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing. - Anais Nin

If you understand and accept
death, you will not fear it. If you do not fear death, what else do you need to
fear? - Unknown

If you would not be forgotten as
soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth
writing. - Benjamin Franklin

In every parting
there is an image of death. - George Eliot

It hath often been said, that it is not death, but dying which is
terrible. - Henry Fielding

It is a blessing to die for a
cause, because you can so easily die for nothing. - Andrew Young

It is a matter of giving more to
this world than you take from it, so when you die, you do not owe it anything.
- Gordon Parks

It is a myth to think death is
just for the old. Death is there from the very beginning. - Herman Feifel

It is infamy to die, and not be
missed. - Carlos Wilcox

It is not death
that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. - Marcus Aurelius

It is
not death that we should fear. Rather it is the possibility of a life unlived
that is the real tragedy. Perhaps the closer we come to understanding this, the
more easily we will come to accept death, and the more fully we will learn to
live here and now. - Leo Buscaglia

It is possible to provide security
against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city
without walls. - Epicurus

Just where death
is expecting you is something we cannot know; so, for your part, expect him
everywhere. - Seneca

Living with the immediacy of death
helps you sort out your priorities in life. It helps you to live a less trivial
life. - Sogyal Rinpoche

Man imagines that it is death he fears, but what he fears is the unknown
…. - Saint-Exupery

Many a life has been injured by
the constant expectation of death. It is life we have to do with, not death.
The best preparation for the night is to work diligently while the day lasts.
The best preparation for death is life. - George Macdonald

Many people die
at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five. - Benjamin
Franklin

Many people die with their music
still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting
ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. - Oliver Wendell
Holmes

Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural
fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. - Francis Bacon

Nobody know, in fact, what death is, nor whether to
man it is not perchance the greatest of all blessings; yet people fear it as if
they knew it to be the worst of all evils. - Socrates

One can
experience an unconditional affirmation of life only when one has accepted
death, not as contrary to life, but as an aspect of life. Life in its becoming
is always shedding death, and on the point of death. - Joseph Campbell

Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural. We move between
two darknesses. - E. M. Forster

People fear death and they live
in some measure of denial, pretending that death is something that happens to
other people. We don’t think about death enough, for if we do, we will know
that there is nothing to fear about death, and perhaps we will be more
appreciative of life then. - Unknown

Perhaps the fact of life most
conducive to living fully as a person is an honest awareness and acceptance of
death. Death tells us that we must live
life now, in the moment – that tomorrow is an illusion and never comes. It
tells us that it is not the quantity of our days, or hours, or years that
matter, but rather the quality of the time spent. - Unknown

Recollection of death, accompanied
with right attitude of mind, gives a man courage and calm even in time of
death. - K. Sri Dhammananda

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon
is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big
choices in life. - Steve Job

Refuse to let
the thought of death bother you: nothing is grim when we have escaped that
fear. - Seneca

Since every man
who lives is born to die, And none can boast sincere felicity, With equal mind,
what happens, let us bear, Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our
care. Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; The world’s an inn, and
death the journey’s end. - John Dryden

Somebody should
tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live
life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want
to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. - Michael Landon

The confronting
of death gives the most positive reality to life itself. It makes the
individual existence real, absolute, and concrete. Death is the one fact of my
life which is not relative but absolute and m awareness of this gives my
existence and what I do each hour an absolute quality. - Rollo May

The constant
recollection of death is the test of human conduct. - Marcus Aurelius

The distance that the dead have gone Does
not at first appear - Their coming back seems possible For many an ardent year.
- Emily Dickson

The end of all is death and man’s life passeth away
suddenly as a shadow. - Thomas A Kempis

The fear of death keeps us from
living, not from dying. Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather
that it shall ever have a beginning. Some people are so afraid to die that they
never begin to live. The question is not whether we will die, but how we will
live. - Unknown

The fear of
death is the basic fear that influences all others; a fear from which no one is
immune no matter how disguised it may be. - Ernest Becker

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when
they come to die, lose one and the same thing. - Marcus Aurelius

The only religious way to think of
death is as part and parcel of life. - Thomas Mann

The single most important thing
I’ve ever learned was that I’m going to die. For once you accept your own
death, all of a sudden you are free to live. You no longer care except so far
as your life can be used tactically – to promote a cause you believe in. - Unknown

There is no
cause to fear death; it is but an incident in life. It is as natural as birth.
- David McKay

There's
something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die
tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now. - Angelina Jolie

Think not
disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the
things that Nature wills. - Marcus Aurelius

To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a
parent dies, the past dies. - Red
Auerbach

To die is different from what any
one supposed, and luckier. - Walt Whitman

To die is poignantly bitter, but
the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable. - Erich
Fromm

To live in hearts we leave Is not to die. - Thomas Campell

We’re all going to die. All of us.
What a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it
doesn’t. we are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by
nothing. - Charles Bukowski

We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end
is linked to the beginning. - Minilius Astonomica

We can think of death as something
that stalks us all our lives or we can see it as a reminder that our time is
precious. - Leo Buscaglia

Weep not for him who departs from life, for there
is no suffering beyond death. - Palladas

What are the fears of death? Are
they the loss of loves, family, friends, possessions and fame; or of an unknown
crammed with the varieties of uncertainty extolled by religion and philosophy?
Only the living can grieve, for in death there is naught to sorrow about. - Unknown

What new thing is it for a man to die, whose whole life is nothing but a
journey to death? - Seneca

When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. - Chief Aupumut, Mohican

When we can embrace death as
simply another aspect of the life cycle, we will give appreciation and value to
each life encounter knowing that it will never occur again. And each of these
moments will be the source of what we shall know as our lifetime. - Leo
Buscaglia

You will die not because you are ill, but because
you are alive. - Seneca

Saturday, 25 June 2011

If you want to be truly successful, invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it, and persevere, your success will blossom. - Sydney Madwed

Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies. - Lord Chesterfield Stanhope

All successful people are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose. - Brian Tracy

Success is living up to your potential. That’s all. Wake up with a smile and go after life. Don’t just show up at the game or the office. Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it. - Joe Kapp

Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory. - Orison Swett Marden

You will never succeed while smarting under the drudgery of your occupation, if you are constantly haunted with the idea that you could succeed better in something else. - Orison Swett Marden

To have faith where you cannot see; to be willing to work on in the dark; to be conscious of the fact that, so long as you strive for the best, there are better things on the way, this in itself is success. - Katherine Logan

Success is relevant to coping with obstacles... but no problem is ever solved by those, who, when they fail, look for someone to blame instead of something to do. - Fred Waggoner

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done. - Samuel Smiles

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you. - Tony Robbins

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it. - Christopher Morley

If there were a fixed formula for success in management, you would not need a management team to run the company. You would only need a computer and a programmer. - Unknown

Thursday, 23 June 2011

A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere until you
change it. - Unknown

A bad attitude is the worst thing that can
happen to a group of people. It's infectious. - Roger Allan Raby

A healthy attitude is contagious
but don’t wait to
catch it from others. Be a carrier. - Tom Stoppard

A great attitude
becomes a great day which becomes a great month which becomes a great year
which becomes a great life. -Mandy Hale

A great attitude does much more
than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all
sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the
change. - Earl Nightingale

A kick butt attitude is like a breath of
fresh air that will attract opportunities. A sour attitude is like bad breath
that can clear a room in a heartbeat, repelling opportunities. - Sam Glenn

A person with a positive attitude is like a
fruit of all seasons. - Shiv Khera

A positive attitude may not solve every problem but it makes solving any problems a more pleasant experience. - Grant Fairley

A
positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people
to make it worth the effort. - Herm
Albright

An attitude is almost like a muscle. You can
chose to have a good one. Find ways to exercise it, and make it grow. - Jerry S. Beall

An attitude of
positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality. -Brian
Tracy

At the center of
our agency is our freedom to form a healthy attitude toward whatever
circumstances we are placed in! - Neal Maxwell

Attitudes are nothing more than
habits of thoughts, and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an
attitude realized. - Paul Myer

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big
difference. - Winston Churchill

Attitude is the difference between
an ordeal and an adventure. - Unknown

Attitude ... is the prophet of your future. -
John C. Maxwell

Attitude ... is the vanguard of your true
self. - John C. Maxwell

Attitude is like chalk dust – it gets on
everything you touch. - Sam Glenn

Attitudes are more important than facts. - Karl Augustus Menninger

Could we change our attitude, we
should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be
different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had
undergone a change of attitude. - Katherine Mansfield

Everything can be taken from a man but one
thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given
set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor E. Frankl

If life becomes hard to bear we think of a
change in our circumstances. But the most important and effective change, a
change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you can't change your fate change your
attitude. - Amy Tan

It
is often difficult to change circumstances, but a positive attitude can help
lift discouragement. - Val R. Christensen

It is our
attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else,
will affect its successful outcome. - William James

Maintain a
forgiving attitude! - Tae Yun Kim

Men's fundamental attitudes toward the world
are fixed by the scope and qualities of the activities in which they partake. -
John Dewey

Nothing can stop
the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on
earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. - Thomas Jeffeson

One's attitude to any issue is determined by
his/her belief about that issue. If one's belief towards an issue is unhealthy,
then one's attitude toward that issue will be unhealthy. What this means is
that the starting point in dealing with the problem of attitude is to deal with
the belief system. - Sumbye Kapena

Our attitudes control
our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for
good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and
control this great force. - Irving Berlin

Our own attitudes always seem OK because we
use an attitude to judge itself. No matter how much misery our attitudes cause,
we will always defend them. - Thomas R.
Blakeslee

People with a positive attitude are
influenced by what goes on within them. People with a negative attitude are
influenced by what goes on around them. - Keith
Harrell

Possessing a great attitude is like having a
secret weapon. All things being equal, attitude wins. All things not being
equal, attitude still sometimes wins. - John
C. Maxwell

Seek out that particular mental attribute
which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the
inner voice which says, "This is the real me," and when you have
found that attitude, follow it. -William James

So much in life depends on our attitude. The way
we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do
the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances,
whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment. - Thomas S. Monson

Sometimes we are
limited more by attitude than by opportunities. - Unknown

Take the attitude of a student,
never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
- Og Mandino

The best time to develop a lasting, positive
attitude is during the good times. Consciously build on the five attitudinal
pillars and use them as a catalyst to heighten your success. Don't find
yourself reacting to bad times, struggling to combat low self-esteem or low
self-worth. Consider this Chinese proverb: "Dig the well before you get
thirsty." - Tim Breithaupt

The
ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight. - Arthur Ashe

The meaning of
things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them. - Antoine
de Saint-Exupery

The only disability in life is a
bad attitude. - Scott Hamilton

The people with whom you work reflect your
own attitude. If you are suspicious, unfriendly and condescending, you will
find these unlovely traits echoed all about you. But if you are on your best
behaviour, you will bring out the best in the persons with whom you are going
to spend most of your working hours.- Beatrice Vincent

We cannot change our past. We can
not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the
inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and
that is our attitude. - Charles R. Swindoll

We
each shape our own life, and the shape of it is determined largely by our
attitude. - M. Russell Ballard

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of
character; it becomes lack of power to act with courage proportionate to
danger. All this must lead to the destruction of our intellectual life unless
the danger summons up strong personalities able to fill the lukewarm and
discouraged with new strength and resolution. - Albert Einstein

Whenever you’re in conflict with
someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your
relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. - William James

You cannot
tailor make your situation in life, but you can tailor make your attitudes to
fit those situations. - Zig Ziglar

You may be dead
broke and that’s a reality, but in spirit may be brimming over with optimism,
joy, and energy; the reality of your life may result from many outside factors,
none of which you can control. Your attitudes, however, reflect the ways in
which you evaluate what is happening. - H. Stanley Judd

Your attitude toward life is far
more important in determining your happiness than your money, appearance,
social status or talent. - Rev. Dr.
Stephanie Dowrick

There is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them. - Matthew Henry

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men, who talk in a road, according to the notions they have borrowed and the prejudices of their education. - John Locke

One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves. - Stephen R. Covey

Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise. - Robert Baden-Powell

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. - Kahlil Gibran

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation. - Brian Tracy

Man has come to control all other forms of life because he has taken more time in which to grow up; when he takes still more time, and spends this time more wisely, he may learn to control and remake himself. - Will Durant

The man who is worthy of being “a leader of men” will never complain about the stupidity of his helpers, the ingratitude of mankind nor the inappreciation of the public. These are all a part of the great game of life. - William J. H. Boetcker

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

I believe the root of all happiness on this earth to lie in the realization of a spiritual life with a consciousness of something wider than materialism; in the capacity to live in a world that makes you unselfish because you are not overanxious about your own comic fallibilities; that gives you tranquillity without complacency because you believe in something so much larger than yourself. - Sir Hugh Walpole

Joy is an attitude; it is the presence of love – for self and others. It comes from a feeling of inner peace, the ability to give and receive, and appreciation of the self and others. It is a state of gratitude and compassion, a feeling of connection to your higher self. - Anonymous

Equanimity is the best antidote for both pessimism and optimism. Equanimity is even-ness of mind and not sullen indifference. It is the result of a calm, concentrated mind. It is hard, indeed, to be undisturbed when touched by the vicissitudes of life, but the man who cultivates equanimity is not upset. - K. Sri Dhammananda

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken – and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived. - Margaret Mitchell

The finest piece of mechanism in all the universe is the brain of man. The wise person develops his brain, and opens his mind to the genius and spirit of the world’s great ideas. He will feel inspired with the purest and noblest thoughts that have ever animated the spirit of humanity. - Alfred Montapert

While it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfilment in being ordinary – for the joys that last have little relationship to achievement. The sun rises and sets in glorious colour over every square inch of the earth, in full view of every living creature. You do not have to jump higher than anyone else to see it. - Unknown

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

So you see your thinking arising and you just let it go. You don’t push it away, you don’t prevent it; you don’t hold it, you return to your breath. Return to your breathing. Then over time, you get to see that your thinking has no substance. Good thinking, bad thinking, has no substance. Then it can’t control you. - Venerable Hyon Gak

Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in meditation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our meditation period with great patience and fidelity. It is, therefore, not good for us to take too seriously the many untoward experiences we have with ourselves in meditation. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of entering into the quiet that's already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day. - Deepak Chopra

The real glory of meditation lies not in any method but in its continual living experience of presence, in its bliss, clarity, peace, and most important of all, complete absence of grasping. The diminishing of grasping in yourself is a sign that you are becoming freer of yourself. And the more you experience this freedom, the clearer the sign that the ego and the hopes and fears that keep it alive are dissolving, and the closer you will come to the infinitely generous "wisdom of egolessness." When you live in the wisdom home, you'll no longer find a barrier between "I" and "you," "this" and "that," "inside" and "outside;" you'll have come, finally, to your true home, the state of non-duality. - Sogyal Rinpoche

All too often people come to meditation in the hope of extraordinary results, like visions, lights, or some supernatural miracle. When no such thing occurs, they feel extremely disappointed. But the real miracle of meditation is more ordinary and much more useful. - Sogyal Rinpoche

{While meditating} I sit quietly and rest in the nature of mind; I don't question or doubt whether I am in the "correct" state or not. There is no effort, only rich understanding, wakefulness, and unshakable certainty. When I am in the nature of mind, the ordinary mind is no longer there. There is no need to sustain or confirm a sense of being: I simply am. - Sogyal Rinpoche

Suffering occurs when people are enslaved by their thoughts. Meditation teaches one to let them go like one’s breath. - Venerable Hyon Gak

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

You should not come to any hasty decision regarding any matter when you are in a bad mood or when provoked by someone; not even when you are in a good mood influenced by emotion, because at such a time the state of your mind is emotional and any decision of conclusion reached during such period would be a matter you could one day much regret. Allow your mind to calm down first and think over it, then your judgment will be an unbiased one. - K. Sri Dhammananda

To be willing to test a new idea; to be able to live on the edge of difference in all matters intellectually; to examine without heat the burning question of the day; to have imaginative sympathy, openness and flexibility of mind, steadiness and poise of feeling, cool calmness of judgment, is to have culture. - A. H. R. Fairchild

A man’s work is in danger of deteriorating when he thinks he has found the one best formula for doing it. If he thinks that, he is likely to feel that all he needs is merely to go on repeating himself … so long as a person is searching for better ways of doing his work, he is fairly safe. - Eugene O'Neill